Mental health problems in rural contexts: A broader perspective: Response to Jackson et al. (2007) Mental health problems in rural contexts: What are the barriers to seeking help from professional providers?

The objectives of this article are to expand and comment upon a recent review in Australian Psychologist of the literature in relation to mental health problems in rural contexts by Jackson et al. (2007). In the present article we review recently published qualitative research on the help‐seeking attitudes and experiences of rural Australian adolescents. While we agree on the utility of the Macintyre, Ellaway, and Cummins (2002) conceptual framework based on notions of health and place, we note that this framework specifically emphasises the importance of the collective dimension. We present a broader perspective on health and place than Jackson et al. (2007) by incorporating social geographic research. We argue that rural mental health research has been hampered by a simplistic view of social stigma of mental illness and that a more thorough conceptualisation of the phenomenon is needed. Finally, we make some further recommendations based on a broader perspective of mental health in rural contexts: one that incorporates an in‐depth understanding of the help‐seeking attitudes and experiences of rural adolescents as well as an appreciation of the collective social functioning of rural communities.     

Media Career Perceptions: Where the Students and Professionals Differ

In this study the author compares the perceptions of undergraduates and working professionals about media jobs. Students overestimated the amount of reward they would gain from their work and underestimated the amount of clerical work they would have to do each day.     

Reflections on Bill Kell: The Legend and His Legacy

Bill Kell influenced many contemporary counseling psychologists through his work as author and as director of training at the Michigan State University Counseling Center from 1957 until his death in 1973. This article describes the legend and legacy of Bill Kell, by using excerpts from six oral histories collected from former trainees, colleagues, and family members.     

Gender Differences in Persuasive Communication and Attribution of Success and Failure

This study examined the impact of gender on persuasive communication, considering the gender of both speaker and listener, and comparing the self-expectations and evaluations of the speakers before and after their communicative exchanges. Findings revealed that females expressed less confidence than males concerning their ability to communicate their arguments persuasively, even though trained communication raters indicated that both genders performed equally well. Subjects varied in their expressed self-confidence, however, depending upon whether they were addressing their arguments to a male or a female. In addition, males rated their communicative “performances” more positively than did females. In attributing their perceived success to various factors, men were more likely to acknowledge their natural communication ability than were women, while women were more inclined than men to point to their effort as the cause of their success. Finally, male and female subjects differed from each other in the way they argued, with males being more inclined to present criterion-based arguments and women more likely to invent their own. Again, both genders tended to use different types of arguments, depending upon the gender of the listener. Several issues raised by the study, especially the gender differences in argument type and the apparent gender-based audience assumptions, warrant further study.